Dwight Freeney's ankle injury is a major story leading into this weekend's superbowl. Though the Colts have kept their cards close to the chest on the whole matter, some details have leaked as to what they are doing to treat the issue. We do know that the Colts are very active with their treatments and Freeney is using some methods that have helped him in the past. The main one is Dr. Leon Mellman, Freeney's Chiropractor, is making sure not only his ankle is getting the proper care, but is also monitoring how his newly guarded walk is effecting the rest of his body. Most notably how his lower back could be adversely affected due to his newly acquired limp. Freeney's injury is being treated as any other low ankle sprain would be in the NFL with some minor tweaks. Although he was seen in a boot very recently, he spoke openly about keeping the motion in the ankle joint to promote healing. Very recently this became common place in joint surgeries; where immediately following the surgery, the joint is put into passive motion to prevent adhesion buildup and promote a quicker recovery. Freeney was spotted walking the beach without his boot on, most likely advised by team doctors for the same reason: a quicker recovery.

According to long-awaited results from a congressionally mandated pilot project testing the feasibility of expanding chiropractic services in the Medicare program, patients have a high rate of satisfaction with the care they receive from doctors of chiropractic.

When asked to rate their satisfaction on a 10-point scale, 87 percent of patients in the study gave their doctor of chiropractic a level of 8 or higher. What's more, 56 percent of those patients rated their chiropractor with a perfect 10.

Contributing to that satisfaction was the attention given to patients' needs and the accessibility of chiropractic care. Patients reported that doctors of chiropractic listened to them carefully and spent sufficient time with them. Some 95 percent said they had to wait no longer than one week for appointments.

"Doctors of chiropractic everywhere should feel pride in these patient satisfaction results and in being part of a profession that still sees the great need for spending time with patients and truly listening to them," said Dr. Rick McMichael, president of the American Chiropractic Association (ACA). "It's clear that patients deeply value the time their chiropractic providers spend with them and the expert care that DCs offer."

The pilot, known as a "demonstration project" in Congress, was conducted from April 2005 to March 2007 throughout the states of Maine and New Mexico, and also in Scott County, Iowa, 26 counties comprising the Chicago metropolitan area, and 17 counties in central Virginia.

Current chiropractic coverage under Medicare is limited to spinal manipulation. Under the demonstration project, however, chiropractic care was expanded to include diagnostic and other services, such as X-rays, examinations, physical therapy and rehabilitation services.

The final report to Congress also includes information on the costs of expanding chiropractic services in the demonstration sites. The report indicates that in all but one of the demonstration sites, patients' health care costs were not significantly changed by expanding coverage of chiropractic services. In contrast, a cost increase was found in the Chicago metropolitan area. Further research into the reasons why the results in Chicago differ from the rest of the demonstration project sites is needed to better understand these findings.

"We already know that Medicare costs in general tend to be higher in Chicago than other similar areas of the country. We must find the underlying cause of the cost difference found in the chiropractic demonstration project and determine whether it had anything at all to do with the expansion of chiropractic services," Dr. McMichael noted.

To further analyze the results of the demonstration project, ACA is creating a taskforce of Medicare experts and researchers who will review the report and develop a response for the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Chiropractor
Peter Morgan had just left Haiti after completing a chiropractic mission there
when the devastating earthquake struck.

"We
just had a calling to go back," said Morgan, a chiropractor on East Boston
Post Road for 25 years and founder of Mission-Chiropractic.

Morgan,
55, got together nine chiropractors and returned to the destroyed country on
Jan. 20 to give out water and rice and offer chiropractic adjustments to the
injured. They also brought five water filtration systems donated by
Connecticut-based KX Technologies.

The
group stayed with a New Rochelle cabdriver, one of Morgan's patients whose
family home was spared, and were shocked when they arrived in Pétionville, a
suburb of Port-au-Prince.

"There
was one house, (then) five houses in rubble, one house, five houses in
rubble," Morgan said.

With
carloads of supplies, Morgan and the other chiropractors visited a partially
collapsed ambulance company that was still trying to operate even as some
workers lay dead under rubble.

Morgan
adjusted ambulance workers who had back and shoulder pain from lifting debris
and patients, and left them with a water filtration system.

They
also came upon a makeshift hospital, where doctors were performing amputations
and stitching without any drugs.

Minnesota
chiropractic student Stephan Moje, who was part of Morgan's group, said that
everywhere they went the stench of death was nearly unbearable.

"The
most shocking thing for me was the smell," he said. "You needed to
cover your mouth with a hankerchief, and you had Tiger balm to put under your
nose."

Heather
Rooks, a chiropractor from Wilmington, Del., said she could feel people's
desperation as they handed out 400 pounds of rice and more than 500 gallons of
water to hundreds of people.

She
recalled riding in the car and being approached by two brothers. When one saw
she had food, his mouth started to quiver with disbelief.

"The
little kids came walking up and said, 'We're hungry. We're hungry,' and all I
had was an apple," she said. "His face was like I had a block of
gold. We gave it to them and said, 'Make sure you share.' The big brother gave
it to the little brother, and he took a bite."

Morgan
said he was struck by people's graciousness. They joined Haitians in singing
hymns and were brought to tears.

"As
we were about to leave, they put us in a circle and prayed for us," Morgan
said. "It was one of the most touching things that happened in my
life."

Morgan
is working on getting support from other chiropractors to continue to send
help.

"The
people were thanking us, and the thing they were saying most of the time was,
'Don't forget us. Please come back. Please help us,' " he recalled.

Japanese researchers have found that elderly men and women who drink 4 or more cups of green tea each day significantly reduce their likelihood of suffering from depression. When compared with those who consumed 1 or less cups of green tea daily, those consuming 4 or more cups were 44 percent less likely to suffer from depression. These effects also did not fade after they factored in social and economic status, gender, diet, history of medical problems, use of antidepressant medications, smoking, and physical activity. According to researchers, it is thought that the amino acid present in green tea, theanine, is thought to have a tranquilizing effect on the brain which may explain the beneficial effect of lowering depression related symptoms. A number of other studies have also shown green tea effective in reducing psychological stress.